The sun was setting in Fizzytopia, a long day coming to an end. Many people and Pokémon were preparing to call it a day and get a good night's sleep right about now... the two Trainers currently locked in an intense Pokémon battle outside a Secret Base, however, neither of them seemed ready to call it a day.

"Tropius! Stomp attack!" exclaimed one of them, a ten-year-old Trainer by the name of Oliver.

"Aragog, use Twineedle!" ordered the other one, the 24-year-old Poison-type Trainer known as Keith Masters.

Aragog, an Ariados, reared up on his hind legs as his two foremost front legs glowed a bright green. Then, as the colossal beast known as Tropius closed in on him, the Ariados jabbed the Grass/Flying-type with his legs. Though this didn't stop the Stomp attack from working, Keith could see, to his relief, that his Ariados was still good to go. And even better- from the looks of things, Tropius had even been poisoned by the attack!

"Tropius, finish it!" exclaimed Oliver. "Use Gust!"

"Aragog! Venoshock!" said Keith.

"Aria!" hissed Aragog, the Bug/Poison-type now spewing a vicious-looking glob of green fluid from his mouth. As the foul liquid splattered against Tropius, it bellowed in pain, the super effective move reacting to the poisoning and distracting it from using its Gust attack.

Keith saw his opportunity and seized it at once. "And now we win with a Fury Swipes!" he grinned.

"Dossssss!" Aragog hissed, now as he jumped into the air. As he landed on Tropius, he started scratching repeatedly at the leafy creature. Tropius roared in protest, but at that moment, the poison's effects seemed to kick in once again, and this time it was to finish the job. Tropius slumped to the ground, and Aragog leapt off its fallen foe.

The Meowth on the sidelines made his ruling right away. "Tropius is unable ta battle!" he exclaimed. "Aragog wins, which means da winner o' dis battle is Keith!"

"Awesome, Aragog!" Keith grinned, crouching down as his Ariados approached him. Keith smiled, patting the Long Leg Pokémon on his head. "You were great out there!"

"Ariados," Aragog nodded before walking away. Keith stood back up and sighed, watching his Ariados walking off. Aragog still didn't seem fully used to life under Keith's care yet, and the trade had been made years ago. Then again, Rayzen had raised Aragog from a baby Spinarak, so his training methods had to have been pretty deeply ingrained in the Ariados's mind, but still... Well, at least Aragog had no problems listening to Keith, unlike a certain Shadow Ledian. Keith was grateful for that, at least.

Oliver, meanwhile, had just returned his Tropius to its Poké Ball. He looked slightly bummed at the ultimate outcome of the battle, but still smiled as he approached Keith. "Oh, man, that was a great battle," he said.

"Sure was," Keith replied, shaking Oliver's hand. "I was cutting it pretty close there near the end, too- if Tropius's Gust had worked, it probably would've beaten Aragog right then and there."

"Yeah, Six'll be fine," Keith nodded. As though to prove a point, he took out a Poké Ball and sent out the Foongus, who was now conscious again, and while looking slightly tired out, looked to be in decent health. "This is probably the toughest battle I've had him in yet, though," he added. "Honestly, I think he did pretty well under the circumstances."

Six, however, did not share these sentiments. He wanted to pull himself into a Defense Curl and never stop it. That battle had been, as far as he was concerned, embarrassing. Keith had sent him in against Oliver's Tropius after Marvolo had fainted, but the Foongus's Sludge Bomb attacks were easily deflected by Tropius's Leaf Blade, and his Poison Powder missed altogether. Rollout was probably the only move he had managed to inflict any damage upon Tropius with. All his recent training, all his gradual building up of self-confidence, and that Tropius found it insultingly easy to beat him. One Gust, and Six had rolled right into the trunk of the tree holding up Keith's Secret Base. It was a one-hit KO.

As Six was thinking about this, Keith and Oliver realized that it was getting late, and the latter had left- he had a room booked for the night at the local Pokémon Center, and had wanted to battle Keith while he was in the area. And as Oliver was walking away, Six made up his mind- he pulled himself into a Defense Curl, and Rolled out across the barren ground, weaving between dead trees, headed for a nearby forest.

"Ahh, what a day, hmm?" Keith said to Meowth. "I'm thinking we should head inside, though- we've been doing nothing but training all day, I think we could all use a break."

"I'm all fer dat," Meowth nodded. And then, as Aragog scuttled up the ladder and in through the door to Keith's Secret Base, Meowth looked around. "Uh, Keith?" he added. "Didn't youse send Six out?"

"Yeah, just a minute ago, why?" asked Keith.

Meowth continued to look around. "Cuz I don't see him here."

Any trace of a smile vanished from Keith's face. "Six?" he called. When no response came, Keith started to look worried. He raced over to the tree holding up his Secret Base and looked behind it. Nothing. "Six? Six!" he called.

And then, suddenly, twin flashes of light erupted from Keith's belt as his Vileplume and Venomoth sent themselves out. "Vile Vileplume?!" James said in a worried tone.

"Venomoth?" added Lily, sounding equally concerned.

"OK," Keith said, trying to stay calm himself. "I think Six may be missing. James, Lily, we'll search the nearby forest. Meowth, go inside and tell Luna, Batrach, and Hedwig to search the other nearby areas. Be sure to tell Hedwig that it's an order from me, elseways she won't obey you. Then I want you to stay inside in case Six comes back. If you hear back from anyone, or if Six comes back, use the videophone to call my Xtranceiver."

"Gotcha," Meowth nodded. In a flash, he had dashed up the ladder and was inside the Secret Base. To Keith's satisfaction, not a minute later, a Tranquill, a Swoobat, and a Crobat all flew out the door and headed out in different directions. At this, Keith headed off in the direction of the forest. Lily flew by Keith's side, with James riding on her.

For what felt like hours, the search went on. Night fell extremely quickly, making it necessary for James and Lily to use Flash to aid in the search. They split up at one point to cover more ground, and not long after that, James and Lily stopped as they heard quiet sobbing. "Six?" they said simultaneously.

The sobbing subsided somewhat. "M-mommy?" came a tiny voice. "Daddy?"

At this, the Vileplume and Venomoth raced over to a nearby tree, and sure enough, there was Six, cowering behind it. As they spotted each other, they came in for as tight an embrace as they could muster, considering the stubby arms (and legs, in Lily's case) they all possessed, not to mention how much James's giant flower further complicated matters. However, as a loving family reunited, they had more than enough motivation to make the hug work.

"Six, we were so worried!" Lily said. "Why did you run off like that?"

"I... I'm sorry," the Foongus said quietly. "It's just... I lost t-to that T-T-Tropius, and... I... I thought I was too weak to belong on the team... I... I didn't think Keith wanted me anymore."

"Oh, Six..." sighed James as he hugged his adoptive son. "Son, that's ridiculous. Keith's been just as worried as your mom and I have. He's the one who got everyone looking for you."

No more words were spoken from that point as the family continued to embrace. And then, a multitude of caws could be heard from behind them all. Slowly, the three Pokémon turned to look- and to their horror, they could see a steadily growing flock of Fearow gathering in the trees before them. All of the Fearow were glaring down at the trio of Poison-types. And worse still, these Fearow looked familiar somehow.

"Are those-" began Lily.

"-the same Fearow from the Tree Grove? Yeah, that'd be them," James confirmed. "Probably relocated their nest after what happened that day." At that moment, both James and Lily could see that Six was shaking- trembling in visible fright at the sight of the flock of Fearow. And unlike last time, they didn't have Gemini or Nagini or any other Pokémon to count on for backup. Still, as the lovers looked at each other, they knew they had to be brave, for their son's sake.

James held out a hand, and Lily took it with one of her legs, and right then, a heart-shaped glob of dark purple sludge surrounded them. And then, the glob expanded in a massive dual Sludge Wave, spreading out in every direction except Six's, hitting almost every Fearow at once. This agitated the flock and spurred them into action. Most of them flapped their wings and took to the air, and many of them swooped down for Drill Peck. In response, Lily flapped her wings, blowing an Icy Wind onto the flock, and James struck down several Fearow with a sizzling Thunder attack.

As Six watched, he couldn't help but feel safe- his parents were both extremely powerful Pokémon, he knew, and so he trusted that they would be able to deal with the scary Fearow. And then he saw something out of the corner of his left eye- a Fearow was targeting Six specifically! The Foongus froze in fear. His mind was screaming for him to use Poison Powder, or Sludge Bomb, or something, but his body was too busy shaking. Luckily, James noticed this and slammed the Fearow with an Ice Punch. Unfortunately, this left him open to a Drill Peck from another Fearow. This resulted in a chain reaction, culminating in numerous Fearow managing to get in multiple hits with Drill Peck on both James and Lily. Six looked on in horror as his parents took the multiple blows, unable to find an opening to strike back. And then... Oh, no. The Fearow were all starting to fly in at once, all of them glowing- it was a group Sky Attack! Neither James nor Lily could take an attack like that! And yet, they still stood (well, hovered in Lily's case) defiantly in front of Six, intent on at least sparing him from the attack's wrath.

And in that moment, it sank in to Six- just how much he really meant to his parents, to his teammates, to his Trainer. And with that realization, it was as though the adrenaline was bringing back all the confidence Six had lost battling Tropius. His scared, timid look was replaced with a more focused and determined one. Just as Keith arrived on the scene, drawn by the harsh glow of the group Sky Attack, Six exclaimed, "FOOOOOONGUS!" and jumped out in front of his parents. Keith gasped in horror as the Fearow closed in...

James and Lily had shut their eyes, still holding hands (well, James's hand holding Lily's leg), when the Fearow... didn't hit them. They opened their eyes nervously, and were surprised to see Six in front of them, casting such a powerful Protect that it was shielding all three of them, and all the Fearow were just bouncing off, none of their Sky Attacks making their way through.

"Whoa!" Keith murmured, in awe. "I didn't know Six had that kind of power in him!"

As the onslaught stopped, Six's Protect also stopped. The Fearow angrily yet wearily climbed back to their feet, spreading their wings, preparing to take off. "Nice try, short stuff," scoffed one of the Fearow. "But we'll be taking our revenge for the Tree Grove now!"

Six did not budge. "You... You will not..." he panted. "You will not... hurt... my family." After he said this, there was a brief moment of silence as the Poison-types and the Fearow glared at each other. Keith hung off to the side, three Poké Balls at the ready, all set to withdraw all three of them should things go wrong. The only thing holding him back by now was sheer morbid curiosity as to how this would play out. And then, something happened that none of them saw coming- Six started to glow! Keith's jaw dropped in awe, James and Lily exchanged gleeful looks, and the Fearow exchanged slightly nervous looks- it never boded well for them when an adversary of theirs evolved. Sure enough, the Foongus got taller, his cap grew larger, his arms lengthened, the ends expanding into large circular shields. And then, the glow faded, revealing a brand-new-

"What the?" Keith said in shock and surprise. He couldn't help it- Six had evolved, all right, but the that stood before him didn't look like any Amoonguss he had ever seen before. In shape, yes, Six was identical to the average Amoonguss... but his cap and shields, far from looking like the standard Poké Ball, instead closely resembled the rarer and more effective Ultra Ball. Was Six some sort of rare breed of Foongus whose unusual form was designed to not manifest until evolution, or were these unusual markings some sort of manifestation of the impressive bravery he had shown just before evolving? Keith had never seen anything like this before, and he had to admit, it was a pretty cool look. He held out his Pokédex, which showed an image of a regular Amoonguss.

"Amoonguss, the Mushroom Pokémon, and the evolved form of Foongus," droned the device. "Amoonguss waves its shield-like caps around to lure in prey, but this does not fool many Pokémon. Once it lures in a Pokémon, it subdues the prey with poisonous spores."

At that moment, Keith stepped out of his hiding place and stood next to his Pokémon. "Six, ready to show these Fearow just what kind of mistake they made?" he asked.

Six looked up at Keith- the Poison-type Trainer was looking down at his newly evolved Amoonguss, a proud smile on his face. All traces of self doubt now completely vanished, Six nodded. "Amoonguss!" he said confidently.

Keith grinned at this, then faced the Fearow and turned his hat backwards. "Go, Six! Rollout!" he ordered.

"Amoooooooonguss!" bellowed Six as he pulled his body into a spherical shape, then rolled forward, picking up speed and momentum by the second, and bowled right into several Fearow at once. And he didn't stop there, either, plowing into more Fearow just seconds later. The smart ones were flapping their wings by this point, and were avoiding the Rock-type move by taking to the air. Once every Fearow had either fled in fear or taken to the sky in order to evade Rollout, Six stopped, glancing up at the few Fearow what that remained.

Keith, however, was not deterred. "Now use your Sludge Bomb attack!" he ordered.

"Amoooooooooooonguss!" Six replied, firing several Bombs made of Sludge from his mouth into the air. Each one struck a Fearow, exploding on contact, and knocking several of them out. The ones who weren't KO'd were now fleeing in fear.

Once Keith was satisfied that the Fearow were sufficiently dealt with, he crouched down and hugged Six. "You were amazing, Six," he grinned. "Just, please, do us all a favor- never run off like that again, OK? You had us all worried."

"Amoong," Six nodded emphatically. True enough, after what had just happened, the Amoonguss had no inclination whatsoever to leave this team behind ever again.